Author: Helen Partz, Cointelegraph; Compiler: Songxue, Jinse Finance
Digital currency investment firm Grayscale is the latest company to submit an application for a new Ethereum futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
On September 19, Grayscale proposed to list and trade the Grayscale Ethereum Futures Trust ETF in accordance with New York Stock Exchange Arca Rule 8.200-E.
The proposal is consistent with provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and rule changes submitted by the New York Stock Exchange to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The ETF is managed by Grayscale Advisors, which the company also refers to as the "sponsor" in its filings.
“The sponsor is in the process of registering as a commodity pool operator with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and is in the process of becoming a member of the National Futures Association,” the filing reads. It also notes that Grayscale Advisors has hired Videnct Advisory as a subadviser to serve as the trust’s commodities Transaction Advisor.
The Grayscale Ethereum Futures Trust seeks to maintain its holdings of Ethereum futures contracts with “substantially constant expiration profiles,” the filing said, adding that it “will never maintain futures positions all the way to cash settlement.” ".
The nature of the Ethereum futures contracts in the ETF does not require the trust company to use an Ethereum custodian, the document shows, adding:
"The trust will deposit an initial margin to initiate an open position in a futures contract. The margin deposit is similar to a cash performance bond. It helps ensure that traders perform on the futures contracts they buy and sell."
A few weeks ago, digital asset management company Valkyrie also submitted an Ethereum futures ETF application to the SEC in mid-August, after several other companies also submitted ETH futures ETF applications. On August 17, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would allow the launch of the first batch of ETFs based on Ethereum futures, which sparked optimism about the Ethereum market.
Last month, Grayscale scored a significant but partial victory in its battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the conversion of its over-the-counter Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a listed spot Bitcoin ETF. . Grayscale filed suit after the SEC rejected its GBTC application. The appeals court ordered that Grayscale's request for review be granted and that the SEC's order denying GBTC's listing application be reversed. Although there is no guarantee that the Grayscale Spot Bitcoin ETF will eventually be listed, the victory was still warmly welcomed by the community.
